Hyundai Genesis Coupe — Chapter Two in Hyundai’s bid for upscale

The other day, a friend of mine asked, “so what are you driving this week?” When I said “a Hyundai Genesis Coupe,” he said, “coming down in the world, aren’t we?”

That may well be the world’s conventional take on Hyundai, despite Hyundai’s best PR efforts to the contrary, but the world should sit up and take notice at what this Korean firm is doing.

Hyundai — no dummies, they — have taken several pages from the playbook of the Japanese car companies and have come up with a line of cars that are well designed, comfortable and, above all, seemingly reliable. To back up their claims for their cars staying glued together, Hyundai offers a blanket 10 year/100,000-mile power train warranty.

Last year, they moved up from the hum-drum Accord-clones, like the Sonata, and introduced the luxo-market Genesis four-door sedan (with V6 or V8 power.) It was a big hit on the auto show circuit and got, by and large, rave reviews.

Now they’ve come out with the Genesis coupe and it, too, threatens to be a success in that niche of the market that wants something racy and reliable.

It’s aimed squarely at that segment typified by Infiniti’s G37 or, according to Hyundai (a stretch of imagination, to my mind), the new welter of muscle cars (Mustang, Challenger, Camaro) from Detroit. The Genesis, however, is decidedly more European/Japanese in design influence than American.

The coupe comes with either a 2-liter, turbocharged four-banger, or (the car we had) a 3.8-liter V6 putting out 306 horsepower. You can get an optional five-speed automatic with the four-cylinder or six-speed automatic with the bigger engine. The V8 offered in the Genesis sedan is not available in the coupe.

On the road, you quickly realize this is no slouch of a car. Hyundai claims zero-to-60 time at under 6 seconds and a top speed of 149 mph. When you mash on the gas pedal, it’s not hard to understand why. Our tester was the “Track” model and this brings up a problem area.

The suspension on this car was murderous on any but the smoothest roads. You did feel every bump, every deteriorating piece of roadway that has not yet been repaired by local government. This may be fine if you want to drive what feels like a race car, but it’s not great if you just want to get down the road in comfort. The less race-car version of the coupe are said to ride a bit better.

Inside, Hyundai has done a good job in creating an upscale environment, replete with Hyundai’s trademark blue instrument panel lighting, which always looks like it came out of a 1950s night club. The seats are comfortable and supportive, the information panel is pretty straightforward and controls fall to hand.

The back seat is useless except for children. Adults trying to sit in back will find their heads hitting the roof or the backlight. The 10-cubic-foot trunk is necessarily small, but can be augmented by flipping down the rear seatback (where those adults will not be sitting) and shoving more luggage into the rear seat area.

What’s amazing about this car, however, is not just that it’s a a pretty fine sports car, but how little it costs, compared to the competition. Entry level for the four-cylinder car is $22,000 and for the V6, it’s $25,000. Our loaded-up V6 model rang in at $29,500. That’s not bad for what you’re getting.